pageoneresults - 2:14 pm on Nov 27, 2011 (gmt 0)

So let's say you've been on a link building spree for the past few months and over that time and even including today and yesterday, you've managed to land some really good natural links.

Is this the first time you've gone on a spree like this? Link building sprees raise all sorts of flags. If your links are from sites that are known to be part of link building sprees, there's a good chance those links are worthless. Google have recently gone on record about Trusted Links and Untrusted Links. Usually those obtained during "sprees" are untrusted for the most part.

How long does it take for these links to actually become effective on gaining some more authority and thus higher ranking?

Personally I wouldn't worry about it. You do what you have to do and move forward.

What I'm wondering about is how long it takes Google to refresh that linkgraph and implement them in to the rankings.

I would imagine it is rather quick, especially with social signals having the impact that they do. The whole "link building spree" is the part I'd be concerned about. I feel folks can upset their rankings negatively by going on the wrong type of sprees. I see it happen all the time when large numbers of links are accumulated over a short period of time from the "usual suspects". Google knows what most of those links are. If they were smart, which they are, they just don't pass any value and you've wasted your time chasing them.